adoption updates

I wasn’t sure I’d get a chance to blog tonight, but Matt went to bed early, so I’ve been taking advantage of my few hours of quiet alone time to get some computer things done. One of the best decisions I’ve made since we moved has been to keep my computer upstairs. In our last place, Matt and I both generally worked at the dining room table, meaning that our computers were always around, and we were both constantly jumping onto them to respond to just one e-mail (or five) or check Facebook or our Google readers or whatever else. Not having my computer a constant presence in our main living space, I’ve found that I am so much more present with what is going on – often interactions with Miranda but also caring for our home. I’m so thankful for that. However, the casualty of this new development has been my computer time – and my ability to stay caught up on e-mails/Facebook/blogs/etc. I’m still working on figuring out what of that I need to eliminate entirely and what I need to make time for and how to do that. But for tonight, I have a bit of time, so I’ll update you all 🙂

Today has been a good day in our adoption journey. I’ve been so wanting to start hitting “official” adoption journey milestones (see sidebar to the right), but our move delayed things a bit, and we just haven’t gotten there yet. The first milestone that needs to be checked off is to have our homestudy complete, and we are almost there! Our social worker e-mailed us a draft of her report yesterday, and we reviewed it after Miranda went to bed, and then I did a final review of her revised version this afternoon, and she sent it off to CCAI for their review right after that. We’re so close to having our homestudy done! Then we’ll mail a copy of it to USCIS to file our I-800A form (requesting approval to bring a child into the country), and assuming they approve us, that’s the last piece of paperwork we’ll need in order to complete our dossier, and then we can get it all sent off to China!

In other adoption news, I also received a packet of papers back from the Chicago courier today, all authenticated by the Chinese consulate as requested! Our agency and the courier were not positive all would go through, so we were incredibly thankful when they did!

Matt and our friend Bobby gazing into each other’s eyes – while Bobby’s wife, Laura, and I look on in dismay (we were having a friend take some serious photos to hopefully include in our dossier, but Matt insisted we needed something fun like this – not for our dossier – as well!)

So many of our friends came out to support us, and Matt sold several pieces, all the proceeds of which go toward our adoption expenses.

Matt with one of his works (not yet sold!) at his show

We’re very thankful to have so much support from our friends and family and community.

This Friday the gallery will also be open for Artrageous Friday, so we’re hoping for another fun and successful evening.

Also related to adoption matters, Matt and I have been talking more about our medical conditions checklist. Before I turn 30 and we are eligible to be matched with a child, we really should provide our agency with an updated list of medical conditions and special needs for which we feel we could adopt a child having those needs. It’s a difficult process – we know that we really are probably not the best family for children with some of the needs on that list…but we also don’t believe that we are in this process simply to find that child whose needs would be easiest for us to handle. God has adopted us into His family, knowing that we are not the easiest, most agreeable people ever, knowing that we would need continuous care and shepherding, and we ultimately want to love with His love. And children whose needs sound somewhat scary often wait so much longer for families. Ultimately, we trust that God has a little one in mind for us, and He will bring her to us, and we will love her and care for her no matter what her needs are, but we also want to be wise and thoughtful as we go through the steps of this process. If you are a praying person, we would welcome your prayers as we think and talk and pray about these things.

And I’ll continue to keep you posted as we (hopefully!) start hitting some of these adoption journey milestones 🙂

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Meet Alison

I'm Alison, wife to one great guy and mama to four precious kiddos. My days are spent loving and caring for those 5 and anyone else God brings into my path, and as I read books and explain math, wipe noses and change diapers, teach and pray, correct and celebrate, I also contemplate and share my thoughts in this space. I'm so honored that you're here!

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